The Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam in Russia’s Kherson Region suffered “colossal” damage during attacks by Ukrainian forces, a local official has said.
The key infrastructure, located on the Dnieper River upstream from the city of Kherson, can still be repaired, but it will require some time, Vladimir Leontyev, the mayor of Novaya Kakhovka, site of the hydropower plant and dam, told TASS on Sunday.
“I think with the use of modern technologies it can be repaired quite quickly. ‘Quite quickly’ in universal terms. We’re not talking about a few months, of course. It’ll take a year or more,” Leontyev said, adding that it was up to the experts to set the exact terms.
In recent weeks, Russia has blamed Ukraine for launching numerous strikes on the dam with the use of US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launch systems.
Moscow insisted that Kiev was attacking the facility in an attempt to cause major flooding in the Kherson area. The Ukrainian authorities have denied those accusations, claiming that Russia was itself planning to destroy the dam in a false-flag operation.